"
"Yes, yes," thought I; "aha, aha, a fellow, who had heaps of
money! Hear you, my friend" (to the waiter), "could not you get me
a bit of venison, or some other solid dish? Hear you, a cup of
bouillon would not be amiss. Look after it, but quick!"
"Yes," said mine host now, "it is strong! Thirty thousand dollars,
and they banko! Nobody in the whole world could have dreamed of
it--thirty thousand!"
"Thirty thousand!" repeated I, in my exultant soul,
"thirty thousand! Hear you, waiter! Make haste, give me here
thirty then--; and give me here banko--no give me here a glass of
wine, I mean;" and from head to heart there sang in me, amid the
trumpet-beat of every pulse in alternating echoes, "Thirty thousand!
Thirty thousand!"
"Yes," continued the fat gentlemen, "and would you believe that in
the mass of debts there are nine hundred dollars for credit
and five thousand dollars for champagne. And now all his
creditors stand there prettily and open their mouths; all the thing
in the house are hardly worth two farthings; and out of the house
they find, as the only indemnification--a calash!"
"Aha, that is something quite different! Hear you, youth, waiter!
Eh, come you here! take that meat, and the bouillon, and the wine
away again; and hear you, observe well, that I have not eaten a
morsel of all this. How could I, indeed; I, that ever since I
opened my eyes this morning have done nothing else but eat (a
horrible untruth!), and it just now occurs to me that it would
therefore be unnecessary to pay money for such a superfluous
feast.
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